Bush at Southern Regional Championships, Adelaide, March 15-16 2008

Bush, March 2008

Official report from Shavawn.

Southern Regionals this year found the 13 BUSH players travelling to Adelaide from the 15-16 March. This happened to be during the longest period (10+ days) of >35° C temperatures in Australian history, lucky us!

The team this year consisted of 8 Tassie players and 5 pick up players from Victoria and South Australia. We were fortunate enough to have Mandy, Nat, Mel and Emily, four Victorian women who are on the Australian Junior training squad, and Sarah Fitton from South Australia, who had played with Kate and Jemery with the Restless Flycatchers at WUCC.

Our first game was against Team Box, from Vic, who were seeded 1st. This game we had 11 players, due to Heidi being very sick and unable to travel and Virgin cancelling Ash's flight Friday evening. Box took an early lead as Bush spent most of the game getting used to playing with each other as a team rather than as individuals from all over the South. We lost the game 4-15 but by the end of the game we were starting to come together as a team and Ash had even arrived to play the last point.

The second round robin game was against Indies. By now the temperature was getting hotter but thanks to Shannon's folks we have our very own shade umbrella, eskies and chairs to have on the sidelines. Indies came out strong taking an early lead 1-4. After a time out with a bit of a pep talk Bush came out fighting once again. We scored the next 6 points in a row to take the lead. By this time we had begun to play as a team. Nat, Mandy and Emily were all doing a great job at cutting and running long, Shannon was a superstar with her cuts and throws, and Mel was dropping into a handling position with confidence. Because of the great work by everyone we won the game 15-6.

After spending 1.5 hours in the shade and having to run out to the shops to grab more Gatorade and a bit more lunch we crawled back out into the heat to play our last game of the day against Honey. In this well spirited game Honey took an early lead but Bush managed to stay close throughout the first half. This was due to Sarah "SA" Fitton's fantastic game on the mark in a puppy fence, all of that height makes a big difference. Emily also got an amazing hand block and a few intercepts, including one double happiness. Kate despite her jetlag, yes once again she was returning from overseas to play, was always running hard and dropping into a handler position when needed. But despite Bush's efforts Honey took the half 6-8. After the half due to either the heat and/or who knows what else Bush began to let the game get away from them, eventually losing 8-15, I think.

With the last game finished Bush headed to the beach for a swim and a cool-down run by Shannon. Then it was back to our hotel in the red light district to get changed for the party. Eliza and Sarah Fayed managed to find us some great (?) terry towel shorts to complete our outfits as 60's and 70's basketball players. Let's just say it was interesting walking through the red light district to the party.

Sunday we had an early start at 8am in an attempt to beat the heat…not sure if it worked. Our game was against Adeladies, who were a group of Adelaide girls who got together at the last minute to form a team. Sarah Fayed, who was playing her first tournament, was cutting long and both throwing and catching goals. Ren was also getting in a lot of game time and it was great to have another handler on the field, go those hammers over the cup. This was a fun game which we won 15-3.

Finishing our last of the round robin games early meant we had a bit of a break before our play off with Honey for a spot in the final. As always Honey came out strong taking an early lead and holding it. Nat and Eliza both had great games running long off Ash's hucks. Bush also had some great sideline support from Ren, who by this time could no longer play due to her achilles injury. Mandy was also a cutting fiend and seemed happy to lean a hand handling when needed. Unfortunately for us Honey was just a bit stronger getting many of their points from quick turns leaving us to play off for 3rd after losing 6-15, I think.

Our last game of the tournament was against Indies. Bush knew that this was going to be a tough game as Indies was very determined to beat us after being disappointed to have lost to Bush earlier in the tournament. The game started at 13:30, the hottest part of the day, reaching 40° C, ouch! Every point in this game was hard fought, with the wind picking up in the afternoon. Indies took a small lead, but with lots of persistence in the warm head wind we came back to bring the score to 7-8 at time. A few points later and it was 9-9 with a golden goal deciding the game. Bush started with the pull, giving Indies a down wind run…after three turns, Shannon's bloody nose after a knock to the face, lots of pick calls and other stoppages Indies managed to score the last point. Resulting in Indies going to nationals seeded S3 and Bush as S4.

After hanging around for the awards, as we all thought Shannon had a good chance of winning it, which we still reckon she only narrowly lost to Mel G, we headed off for ice cream at Cold Rock. Eliza even managed to restrain herself to only two toppings rather then the six she had on Friday. From there it was back to the beach once again before dropping Mel, Nat and Mandy at the airport.

We would like to thank Mel, Emily, Nat, Mandy and Sarah Fitton for playing with us for Southern Regionals and hope that they can all join us for Nationals in Coffs next month and Shannon's parents for bring shade, eskies, seats and most importantly supporting us from the sidelines.

In March 2006, the Tassie Tiggers played in the second Southern Australian Ultimate Championships, a qualifying tournament for the Open Division of the Australian Ultimate Championships 2006, featuring teams from Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia. 12 Tiggers made the journey across Bass Strait to play a two day tournament in in Elsternwick, Melbourne in extremely hot weather on March 11 and 12, 2006.

The Bush team at Southern Regionals 2008: (back row) Shannon Trenwith, Eliza Burke-Polden, Kate Godber, Nat Rae, Mandy Fung, Sarah Fitton, Ash Martens; (front row) Sarah Fayed, Kerryn Herman, Emily Gibbs, Mel Hill, Shavawn Donoghue; (missing) Heidi Pass.

Full rankings

The final team rankings were:

Player list

The 2008 Bush team at Southern Regionals were: